Bella's heat
by Maydrei
Summary: When the hottest night of the summer strikes, will Edward be able to keep his cool as Bella begs him to hold her close?


Bella shoved open the door to her bedroom, hair dripping from her shower. Edward sat on her bed, watching her. He had an odd look in his eye.

"What is it?" Bella asked, crawling into bed.

"Nothing," Edward said, wrapping an arm around her. He was a little surprised at Bella's pajamas; they were quite a change from her baggy T-shirt and pants. She was wearing a thin tank top and small shorts. But when he thought about it, it made sense—today had been ridiculously hot.

All day Bella had been red-faced and sweaty, not from him, but from the heat. They had made plans to go hiking to the meadow again, but Edward quickly ditched that idea when he saw the nearest outdoor thermometer. It had to be one of the hottest days on record for a day in Forks. Instead of going outside, Bella and Edward had retreated into her house, which wasn't much better. When Charlie got home, he was also red-faced and complaining about why he had never thought to get an air conditioner. Both he and Bella had skipped dinner, so Edward had slipped outside to moved his car and returned to Bella's room.

"Does the heat bother you?" Bella asked.

"Not a lot." Edward shrugged. "It's uncomfortable, but not unbearable."

Bella groaned, "Ugh, I wished it was the same for me."

After a few minutes, Bella had kicked all the sheets away from her and fallen asleep. Edward could tell the heat had just sucked the energy right out of her, and wasn't surprised she had accepted sleep so soon.

As he waited to hear her begin talking in her sleep, he gently stroked her hair, keeping his eyes closed.

Bella rolled over in his arms and he lay on his back to give her room, not really paying much attention to her actions. That is, until Bella wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed against him. He froze, surprised. Bella never did that in her sleep before; he prayed that she wasn't having a…certain type of dream. But then Bella suddenly moved completely on top of him and mumbled something, Edward couldn't hear her; he was too distracted at the moment. Not sure what to do, he began to sit up, when Bella sighed and opened her eyes. "Edward, stop moving. I'm hot, and you're nice and cold."

"Oh, right," he said quickly, quite ashamed and disgusted that he was thinking such thoughts. He tried to calm himself, but he couldn't quite manage that. He forced himself to act normally, but then Bella had pushed herself up on his shoulders, her knees on either side of him, making his breath catch in his throat. She was leaning over him for the window, and he got a beautiful view as her shirt lifted and her pale and flat stomach was exposed. He had a sudden urge to lean up and kiss it, but immediately destroyed that thought. What had gotten into him? He slept next to Bella almost every night, his thoughts were completely inappropriate…

But then Bella had lain back down and as she resettled, her breast brushed against his chest and her thigh had rubbed his own. He didn't hear what Bella had asked and stiffened considerably, trying to think of something else. "What?" he asked distractedly.

"Why didn't you leave the window open?" she asked again, placing her head on his chest.

"Er, wasn't thinking," he replied, keeping his eyes tightly closed and clenching his teeth. Bella stilled, and Edward calmed. But after a few minutes, Bella was awake again.

"I think it's just too hot to sleep," she groaned, stifling a yawn.

"Just try…" Edward murmured, praying she would keep still and not move around again.

Bella got an idea, and grabbed the hem of Edward's shirt, beginning to pull it up, too tried and grumpy to be embarrassed at her boldness. Freezing up, Edward blinked, then realized what she was doing. Edward quickly sat up and removed her hands. Keeping himself calm and telling himself he was just doing this to make Bella comfortable, nothing more, he stripped off his shirt.

Bella sighed into his skin when he lay back down and Edward forced himself to not think of anything. She wrapped her arms around his neck again and pressed against him, making sure not an inch of his coldness went to waste.

"Bella, stop squirming," he said a little too sharply, but she was too tired to notice and did as he said. To keep himself calm, he stopped breathing so not to get excited by her scent. He wished that he could do the same thing to his skin; since it was extra-sensitive it was quite…not unpleasant (far from that, really), but more unwanted. He kept telling himself to keep control, that one wrong move could cripple his little Bella, and he immediately got control of himself.

But then Bella began dreaming. She murmured his name into his neck and tightened her grip on him, and he forgot not to let air into his lungs. His nose filled with her scent and he wrapped his arms around her, letting his hand slip under her shirt—on her back, of course. That didn't matter to Bella though, any amount of coldness on her skin was an improvement, and she pressed against Edward, sighing happily. She shifted her legs again and her knee rested against his groin for a second. Edward shuddered and was about to sit up, when Bella pushed herself up and yawned, mumbled something about the bathroom, and exited the room.

Edward lay there for a moment, a hand to his face. He grumbled and got off the bed, moving to the chair in the corner of the room. He couldn't think of an excuse at the moment to leave completely, but it wouldn't end well if he stayed on the bed. It wasn't fair that Bella was practically throwing herself at him without realizing it.

When Bella returned, she had a dripping rag in her hands and was wiping it on her face, then on her neck. The rest of her skin shone like she had already rubbed it with the wet cloth and Edward's thoughts immediately jumped to imagining her running it over her. He blocked that out quickly and Bella turned to him, looking confused. "Edward? Why'd you move?"

"I think you could fall asleep quicker if I wasn't in the bed, I must like a rock slab under you," he said.

"Yeah, but I like it," Bella said, and crossed over to him. Edward's plan completely backfired when she crawled onto his lap. He sighed slightly and wrapped his arms around her so she wouldn't slip and cocked his head to the side as she rested her head against his neck.

He was amazed that Bella could fall asleep in what seemed like a rather uncomfortable position, but soon her steady breaths were falling against his skin. He looked down at her and smiled. She was so innocent, and yet made his body ache for her. He leaned back and his breath hitched as her hand fell onto his inner thigh.

Shaking his head, he picked it up, kissed it, and settled it across her stomach.

Sometimes it really sucked to be a vampire, Edward mused.

**There you go, my slight torturing of Edward. Hoped you liked it, please comment.**


End file.
